National Lyrics, and Songs for Music/Old Norway
OLD NORWAY.
A MOUNTAIN WAR-SONG.
"To a Norwegian the words Gamlé Norgé (Old Norway) have a spell in them immediate and powerful; they cannot be resisted. Gamlé Norgé is heard, in an instant repeated by every voice; the glasses are filled, raised, and drained; not a drop is left; and then bursts forth the simultaneous chorus "For Norgé!” the national song of Norway. Here, (at Christiansand) and in a hundred other instances in Norway, I have seen the character of a company entirely changed by the chance introduction of the expression Gamlé Norgé. The gravest discussion is instantly interrupted; and one might suppose for the moment, that the party was a party of patriots, assembled to commemorate some national anniversary of freedom."—Derwent Conway's Personal Narrative of a Journey through Norway and Sweden.
The following words were written to the national air, as contained in the work above cited.
OLD NORWAY.*[1]
A MOUNTAIN WAR-SONG.
Arise! old Norway sends the word
Of battle on the blast;
Her voice the forest pines hath stirr'd,
As if a storm went past;
Her thousand hills the call have heard,
And forth their fire-flags cast.
Arm, arm, free hunters! for the chase,
The kingly chase of foes;
'Tis not the bear or wild wolf's race,
Whose trampling shakes the snows;
Arm, arm! 'tis on a nobler trace
The northern spearman goes.
Our hills have dark and strong defiles,
With many an icy bed;
Heap there the rocks for funeral piles,
Above the invader's head!
Or let the seas, that guard our Isles,
Give burial to his dead!
- ↑ * These words have been published, as arranged to the spirited national air of Norway, by Charles Graves, Esq.